Making Observations Quotes

1. "Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations. Of necessity, they observe with a preconceived idea, and when they devise an experiment, they can see, in its results, only a confirmation of their theory. In this way they distort observation and often neglect very important facts because they do not further their aim…. But it happens further quite naturally that men who believe too firmly in their theories, do not believe enough in the theories of others. So the dominant idea of these despisers of their fellows is to find others' theories faulty and to try to contradict them. The difficulty, for science, is still the same. CLAUDE BERNARD, An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, 1865"
Author: Gary Taubes

2. "As in Mathematicks, so in Natural Philosophy, the Investigation of difficult Things by the Method of Analysis, ought ever to precede the Method of Composition. This Analysis consists in making Experiments and Observations, and in drawing general Conclusions from them by Induction, and admitting of no Objections against the Conclusions, but such as are taken from Experiments, or other certain Truths. For Hypotheses are not to be regarded in experimental Philosophy."
Author: Isaac Newton

3. "To all the eyes that observed the handsome couple,their conversation was circumspect, but had it been heard, it would have caused more than one pair of ears to burn. Lucy crooned to Heath in a faked Southern drawl, making wicked observations, whispering bits on nonsense and entertaining him with veiled hints about the black silk pantalets she assured him she was wearing."You don't even own black silk pantalets," Heath said, his eyes dancing with amusement at her antics."I most certainly do. I had them made for me.You said you didn't like plain old white. And I have on a matching corset-""I almost believe you.""You'll believe me later," she purred, and he laughed outright."What's gotten into you tonight?""nothing.It's just that I've finally decided something.""Oh?What have you decided?""Something private.I can't tell you.""Ah. Then your decision must involve me, or you wouldn't keep it a secret.""In every way," she said, and smiled at him in a way that made his breath catch."
Author: Lisa Kleypas

4. "A man who, night after night, falls like a lump of lead upon his bed, and ceases to live until the moment when he wakes and rises, will such a man ever dream of making, I do not say great discoveries, but even minute observations upon sleep? He barely knows that he does sleep. A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness. A memory without fault is not a very powerful incentive to studying the phenomena of memory."
Author: Marcel Proust

5. "I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million light years away. This discovery showed that some galaxies were capable of producing radio emission about a million times more intense than that from our own Galaxy or the Andromeda nebula, and the mechanisms responsible were quite unknown. ... [T]he possibilities were so exciting even in 1952 that my colleagues and I set about the task of designing instruments capable of extending the observations to weaker and weaker sources, and of exploring their internal structure."
Author: Martin Ryle

6. "So we pour in data from the past to fuel the decision-making mechanisms created by our models, be they linear or nonlinear. But therein lies the logician's trap: past data from real life constitute a sequence of events rather than a set of independent observations, which is what the laws of probability demand.[...]It is in those outliers and imperfections that the wildness lurks."
Author: Peter L. Bernstein

7. "To be fair, you can tell me what you think of me," Max offered. "I didn't mean to offend you. I was just making a few observations.""How could I possibly know enough about you to make a proper judgment?" His tone was harsher than he'd anticipated. "You've taken a stranger into your home without so much as a second thought and offered everything but your bed. Crazy comes to mind. Suicidal maybe."Max leaned forward in her chair, readying her defenses. "Excuse me?""I don't mean to sound ungrateful here but please remember that you don't know me. I appreciate all that you've done but that doesn't entitle you to judge me.""I wasn't judging you," she bit back. "But maybe you're right. I don't think I thought this through at all."
Author: Shawn Kirsten Maravel

8. "I love making observations. That one is a classic example."
Author: Stephen Colbert

Making Observations Quotes Pictures